Caisse ups low-carbon asset target after exceeding 2018 goal

Staff | April 3, 2019

After exceeding its target for low-carbon assets in 2018, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is now aiming to boost its low-carbon holdings to $32 billion by 2020, according to its second annual stewardship investing report.

In 2017, the pension fund started with $18 billion in low-carbon assets in its portfolio and raised that to $28 billion by the end of 2018. It’s also measuring its carbon emissions per dollar invested and achieved a 10 per cent reduction in 2018, moving towards its 25 per cent reduction target for 2025.

“In 2018, we acted on several fronts to meet our objectives, because we understand our financial performance will only be as sustainable as the world we invest in,” said Michael Sabia, president and chief executive officer of the Caisse, in a press release.

More broadly, the Caisse it’s continuing to actively engage with companies on issues of corporate governance, women on boards and climate change.

In another new report on investors’ sustainability efforts, the Global Sustainable Investment found a 34 per cent increase in allocation to sustainable investments since 2016. The total has reached $30.7 trillion in global investments affected by some sustainability initiative.

It found certain regions are allocating a larger proportion of overall investments to sustainable options than others. In Australia and New Zealand, 63 per cent of professionally managed assets are in sustainable investments, while the number is only 18 per cent in Japan. In dollar terms, Europe boasts the most sustainable investment at US$14.1 trillion, followed by the U.S. with US$12 trillion, noted the report.

Negative or exclusionary screening techniques are the most popular sustainable investment strategy, it found, impacting US$19.8 trillion worldwide, followed by a broader integration of environmental, social and governance factors at US$17.5 trillion in assets.